Amna: Indian tax officials have
conducted searches at the bbc
offices in that country for the
past two days, highlighting
dwindling press freedoms in what
is often called the world's
largest democracy.
The bbc's offices in Mumbai and
New Delhi were swarmed by
reporters and Indian tax
Tax rates just three weeks after
the British broadcaster aired a
documentary called India: The
Modi question.
>> One area that I was very weak
and that was how to handle the
media.
Amna: Examining prime minister
narendra Modi's role in handling
raids in his home state in 2002.
More than 1000 people were
killed.
And reveals a British foreign
office report that called Modi
responsible for the climate of
impunity enabling the violence.
Modi's government used emergency
powers to block film clips
online and arrested students who
held screenings.
But students resisted and
protested.
As the tax rate unfolded
yesterday, Modi to if yes hindu
nationalist party denounced the
bbc at a press conference.
>> How shallow the reporting of
the bbc is.
India is a country which gives
an opportunity to every
organization as long as you do
not have a hidden agenda.
>> Intimidating a tactic.
It is clear there are pretenses
even in the case of the bbc.
Amna: Abhinandan sekhri is the
co-founder of newslaundry, an
independent Indian media
organization that has published
reports critical of the Modi
government in 2021 and faced a
similar tax search.
A New Delhi court later
dismissed all allegations of tax
violations.
>> I was detained for 13 and a
half hours.
They took my phone later --
data, they took my laptop data,
and our coverage continued.
Similarly, in the case of the
bbc, they did this documentary
which created a furor among
those in power, and they were
very upset about I
and this is the way of
demonstrating that we'll show
you.
Amna: This latest confrontation
raises more questions about the
Modi government's commitment to
freedom of the press.
Bobby Ghosh is an
indian-american journalist and
editor of foreign affairs and
opinions at Bloomberg.
He joins me now from New York.
It's good to see you.
When you look at the contents of
this documentary, why do you
think it would lead to this kind
of response from the Modi
government?
Bobby: The Modi government
historically has been
thin-skinned about any kind of
criticism, even the mildest.
This is particularly difficult
for the Modi administration
because it comes after years and
years and years of local
journalism, journalism by Indian
publications that have looked
into those same riots.
And the government thought that
it had put the matter to bed.
It had intimidated and silenced
all its critics, anybody who
could bring it up.
And this coming from the bbc, an
international media outlet with
a great deal of credibility.
It's much harder for the
government to question the bbc
and therefore, it really goes
under their skin.
Amna: Is this the first time
that we've seen prime minister
Modi use his government agencies
in this way in these tax raids?
Bobby: Well, tax raids are a
fairly familiar tool for
intimidation in Indian politics.
It's not just the Modi
government.
This goes back to Indira Gandhi
during the emergency in the
1970s.
And it's practiced across India
by state governments with
national governments, all kinds
of raids, customs raids, tax
raids.
These are a tool of harassment.
It is only one of several
weapons of intimidation and
coercion that the Modi
government has brought to bear
primarily on the domestic media.
Amna: There is an organization
called freedom house that grades
nations according to adherence
to democratic principles.
They rate India as only partly
free.
Is this just about cracking down
on journalists?
Bobby: No, I think there has
been an across-the-board
shrinkage of free speech in
India.
It's not just journalists.
It's ngos.
It's any kind of organization
that the government perceives as
a threat.
And like populist governments
elsewhere in the government,
the Modi government is very
quick to see threat where mere
criticism is being committed.
Opposition parties, minority
groups of all kinds have come
under enormous strain.
So this is not simply a matter
of cracking down on journalism,
although that is a very useful
barometer.
Amna: Amid all this, we should
note we have not seen public
criticism from the U.S. Or the
U.K.
Just yesterday, the white house
put out a statement saying
president Biden and prime
minister Modi had a phone call.
They just signed a $46 billion
aircraft deal.
This administration hasn't been
publicly critical of the Modi
government.
Bobby: The administration sees
India as a source of revenue.
It sees India as an ally with a
common adversary in the shape of
China.
It sees India as a fellow
democracy.
And therefore, it's really very
reluctant to criticize.
And it is this reluctance to
criticize by the west, by other
democracies, by Europe, that has
emboldened the Modi
administration.
The fact that it is now
targeting an international
publication like the bbc that
comes from this sense of
impunity.
The Modi administration knows it
can count on the greatest power
on Earth, the biggest and most
powerful democracy in the world,
to keep silent when India breaks
the rules of democracy.
Amna: Bobby, as you know, with a
population of 1.4 billion, India
is known as the world's largest
democracy.
Given everything we've just
talked about, is it still fair
to call it that?
Bobby: Well, if you think about
democracy simply in terms of
elections, then far and away,
India is the biggest democracy
in the world.
It conducts a gigantic election
that is very hard to wrap your
head around the sheer scale of
it.
But democracy is much more than
just about elections.
It's about freedom to express
yourself, freedom to criticize
the government, freedom to
investigate and put the
government under a microscope.
All those freedoms are shrinking
in India and have been shrinking
at an alarming pace.
It's still a democracy, but it's
an illiberal democracy rather
than a liberal democracy.
And the arc, the direction in
which it is going, does not
allow for optimism about any
kind of turn around in the near
future.
This is not the democracy of
nehru.
This is a very, very different
kind of beast.
Amna: Bobby Ghosh, editor of
foreign affairs and opinions at
Bloomberg.
Thank you for joining us.